Numerous different proposals have been put forward to provide an auxiliary child bicycle seat on a bicycle so that a child can be transported together with a cyclist. Many of these provide the seat behind the cyclist but applicant believes that such a position is undesirable from a control and monitoring point of view.
Other proposals have made use of the top tube of a bicycle frame to support a specially configured child seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,958 describes a child seat that is supported by a split tube that encircles the top tube of the frame and has arms extending downwards to support footrests. The downwardly extending arms are attached to the down tube of the frame. The arrangement is somewhat complicated and expensive to construct.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,704 describes an arrangement in which a large diameter cylindrical sponge body is supported on the top tube of a bicycle frame which is accommodated in a slot in the sponge body. Because there is no other part, the proposal is that the cyclist wears a harness by means of which a child may be secured to the cyclist. This arrangement is also complicated and not of particular note for any features.
Other prior proposals include a number of arrangements that rely on an anchorage that is secured to the head tube of a bicycle frame. Such arrangements include those described in published US patent applications 20040061361 and 20110266320.
Other than the arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,704, all of the arrangements described run the risk of damaging or at least defacing to some extent the bicycle, especially the top tube and in some cases the head tube of the bicycle frame.
There is scope for a more simple arrangement.
In what follows, the term “top tube” is not intended to limit the scope of the invention which should be quite apparent to anyone of reasonable skill in the art. The term “top tube” is thus intended to apply not only to a conventional men's bicycle in which the top tube of the bicycle frame is generally horizontal, but also to any other appropriately orientated upper frame member such as the upper tube of two vertically spaced and approximately parallel tubular frame members of a so-called step-through bicycle frame that is particularly aimed at use by ladies and as a utility bicycle or that of the so-called mixte (unisex) bicycle frame.